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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EDWARD HUBBARD RUSSELL, OF PARK CITY, UTAH TERRITORY.

TREATING ORES AND METALLURGICAL PRODUCTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 381,849, dated April24, 1888.

Application filed June 24, 1886. Serial No. 206,150. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern;

Be it known that I, EDWARD HUBBARD RUSSELL, of Park City, in the countyof Sumwit, and in the Territory of Utah, have in vented certain new anduseful Improvements in Treating Ores and Metallurgical Products; and Ido hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exactdescription thereof.

' My invention relates to an improvement in the treatment of ores andmetallurgical products for the extraction of gold, silver, and otherprecious metals therefrom.

The kind of treatment of ores to which my invention especially appliesis lixiviatiou. In my United States Patents Nos. 295,815 and 295,816 Ihave described and claimed processes of lixiviation, in carrying outwhich the ore or metallurgical product is subjected to the action ofcupreous hyposulphite in the hyposulphite solution. In such patents thev great advantages of the use of a copper salt or compound in connectionwith the ordinary leaching solution containing hyposulphite of sodium orcalcium are fully set forth, so that they need not be stated ordescribed at length here. In carrying out such processes the copper saltor compound, preferably the sulphate of copper or blue-stone, is addedto the hyposulphite solution before allowing the solution to reach orpass through the ore or product. In such case the ore or product is notexposed to the action of any copper salt or compound until it is exposedto the action of the cupreous hyposulphite in the solution. It is thenacted upon at the same time by the compound or salt that has been formedby reaction taking place in the hyposulphite solution upon the additionof the copper salt, and also by any of such latter'copper salt as mayremain free or uncombined in the solution.

The object of the present invention is to expose the ore or product tothe action of compounds of copper other than the hyposulphite thereofbefore the use of a hyposulphite solution upon such ore or product, forthe purpose not only of forming cupreous hyposulphite in the ore andsolution when the hyposulphite solution is subsequently used, but alsoof counteracting the injurious effects of hydrates of various elementswhich may exist in the ore and which are decomposed or neutralized bythe copper compounds.

With these ends in view my invention consists in the process andimprovement in the art, as hereinafter specified.

In carrying out my process the ore or product is placed in a suitableore-tub and then the solution (aqueous or otherwise) of copper salt orcompound is mixed with the ore or product by any of the Well-knownmethods. The salt of copper which I prefer and generally use for thissolution,which 1 term the preliminary solution, is the sulphate ofcopper or blue-stone; but I contemplate using instead other compounds orsalts of copperas, for instance, the chloride nitrate, carbonate,oracetate cupreous carbonate, ammoniated copper, or hydrate of copper.After-the mass of ore or product has become saturated with this solutionthe latter can be either immediately drawn off or left standing in theore until the desired reactions are completed. Usually it does notinterfere with or make any practical difference in the action of thehyposulphite leaching solution used in the subsequent step in theprocess if the preliminary copper solution is still in the ore orproduct, instead of being allowed to drain out. Instead of using anamount of this preliminary copper solution sufficient to satiirate theore, a much less amount of the solution may be used, even as little asonetenth of that necessary to saturate the charge being sometimessuflicient. Usually for a charge of ore or metallurgical product fromone to six inches of water, in which is dissolved from one to fivepounds of blue-stone per each ton in the charge, is enough. As thissolution sinks down through the charge, the sulphate of copper attacksand decomposes the hydrates of various elements which may exist in theore, and which, as is well known,

very materially interfere with and prevent the desired dissolving actionof a hyposulphite leaching solution used to leach the ore. The sulphateneutralizes the injurious effects of caustic soda or lime or. thehydrates of other metals existing in the ore by the formation of hydrateof copper. After the solution of sulphate of copper has been in the orea sufficient time to complete this, (its neutralizing action.) theordinary hyposulphite leaching solution containing usually thehyposulphite of sodium or calcium, is used upon the ore in any of thewell-known ways of using a leaching solution. As it passes through thecharge, not only is its dissolving action not interfered with by thepresence of any caustic lime, soda, or other hydrates in the ore, butany caustic soda, lime, or other hydrates which may exist in thesolution itself are neutralized by the copper compounds formed in orleft in the ore by the sulphate-ofcopper solution previously used.

, really subjected to the action ofa hyposulphite solution to which oneor more copper compounds have been added as the solution passes throughand acts upon the ore.

The ordinary simple hyposulphitc solution when used upon the ore in thesecond step of my present process, after the use of the preliminarycopper solution on the ore, becomes then, by the action of the salts orcompounds of copper which it meets and takes up on its passage throughthe ore, the extra or compound solution, the use of which upon ore ormetallurgical products is fully described and covered by the claims inmy patents referred to. It is this compound or extra solution which actsupon the ore or product when the second step of the present process isbeing carried out. The present process, then, involves a new method ofpreparing such extra or compound leaching solution for action upon theore-that is, a new way of introducing a copper salt or compound into thehyposulphite solution.

Instead of preparing and using the small amount of the preliminarycopper solution described above, enough may be made up to saturate oneor more charges and used upon several ehargesuntilits strength isexhausted. I contemplate also using in the second step of the process,after the copper solution has been used on the ore,my extra or compoundleaching solution described hereinbefore, contain ing cupreoushyposulphite instead of the ordinary hyposulphite leaching solution; butI prefer the latter for general use.

Having thus described my invention, whatI claim is- 1. As an improvementin the art of extracting metals from ores or metallurgical products, themethod of preparing the ore or product for the use thereon of a leachingsolution, which consists in treating the ore with a solution of acompound or salt of copper, substantially as and for the purposespecified.

2. The process of extracting metals from ores and metallurgicalproducts, which consists in subjecting the ore or product to the actionof a solution of a copper salt or compound and then treating the ore orproduct with a hyposulphite solution, substantially as and for thepurpose described.

3. The process of extracting metals from ores and metallurgicalproducts, which consists in first treating the ore or product with asolution of sulphate of copper and then sulr jecting the ore or productto the dissolving action ofa hyposulphiteleaching solution,substantiallyas and for the purpose described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this15th day of June, 1886.

ED \VARD HUBBARD RUSSELL.

Vitnesses:

WILL. E. Race, CHARLES HERMAN.

